So You Take The Bow Like This
by ladyxkodomo
Summary: ...and you pluck the strings of my heart. Just a little story about Shinji, his cello, and Asuka. Just a little short story I wrote for fun! READ THE AN, PLEASE...r and r!


A/N: *has those little blushy things on her face* SIGH!!! I just watched Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card, and I am currently overcome with WAFFiness, romanticiness, loveliness, happiness, and fluffiness! *rises up into the air* So since I'm so compelled to write a Sakura+Syaoran fic, I'll write a Shinji+Asuka one! Why, you ask? Well, I can't think of a good plot for an S&S fic, eheheh, and I've had this one in my head ever since I BOUGHT THE EVANGELION CD AT ANIMEUSA5!!! OH YEAH!!! WHO LIKES ANIME CONS!?!? I DO!!! It was pretty cool. I bought the CD, CCS:TSC, Rurouni Kenshin graphic novel one, and Rising Stars of Manga one. Whoooo, I even watched an Anime Music Vid. It had scenes from EoE and the music was by Incubus. I was so happy!!!!!!!! ^________^ I still am!!! I am overcome with yummyness!!! I LOVE S AND S!!! GO SAKURA AND SYAORAN!!! But I ALSO LOVE SHINJI AND ASUKA!!! GO YOU SPINELESS WIMP AND YOU FIERY GERMAN GIRL!!! WOOT WOOT!! My two favorite couples, next to Sana and Akito. (Who, by the way, are in 3rd place right now.) Whhheeeee, I'm gonna go watch the last part of that DVD again!!! But first...on with the fic! By the way, this is just a little side-fic. Nothing to do with To Asuka or anything, I just wanted to write it. Jah, bye bye!  
Note: To get a real feel for this, if you have the 2ND EVANGELION CD (the one with Asuka on the cover, in a pink dress) then please go to Track 5, the cello one? I just get the feeling Shinji's playing it~^____^ Then go to Track 6 and the second half is composed of violins (Asuka?) Do you get it now? Just keep playing those over and over again. Whooo. I'm on a love high.  
Disclaimer: I own not the works of Gainax, which means that I don't own NGE. Sucks to be me. But I highly doubt you own it either. So, sucks to be you!!!!   
  
So You Take The Bow Like This  
  
  
_...and you pluck the strings of my heart._  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Deep, smooth cello noises could be heard from inside the Katsuragi apartment. The melodic sounds were coming from the bedroom just down the hall–Shinji's. It had been awhile since he'd played his cello–even awhile since he had taken it out of his case. It was a bit dusty and out-of-tune, but Shinji, having found quiet in the house since Asuka was at Hikari's and Misato was at NERV, quickly found that dusting off his cello and tuning it up, in peace, was a very enjoyable moment.  
He'd taken the time to find his sheet music and play out a few bars of the song. He didn't know the song title–he had found it, unnamed, in a music shop and the store owner had given it to him for free since it was pretty old. He liked it, though–deep and poetic without words. Just to sit there, and pull his bow across the strings he hadn't touched in so many months, was having fun to Shinji. Perhaps he was strange. But he liked quiet.  
And quiet, in the Katsuragi household, was very rare.  
White puffs of rosin fell from the bow in elegant clouds and the sunlight that had streamed in through the open window was mixing with it beautifully. Shinji's hand moved in a delicate vibrato; adding texture to the places where it sounded bare. The lagato (smooth) sounds coming from Shinji's room were unmistakable–he was happy. He was happy, playing his string instrument in a lonely room that was slowly being coated by rosin.  
But to each his own.  
While the music was being echoed throughout the empty household (Pen-Pen was sleeping, so he counted as not being there), the door to the household opened silently and a red head poked through. Expecting to hear silence, or perhaps the tv, she was startled by the sound of a string instrument.  
_Is Baka actually playing his cello?_ She thought to herself as she took off her shoes._ He sounds like an amateur...how bland._  
As she moved throughout the kitchen, though, looking for a drink, she could easily tell she was just trying to make her violin playing sound better. He was good. Really good. And even though he was kind of playing the same thing over and over again, she didn't get tired of hearing those notes. They were pretty.  
The way he played was pretty, she admitted, quite painfully. It was almost enough to put her to sleep, if she had been sitting down.  
But she didn't sit down. The urge to find out whether it was really him nagged at her. She couldn't bring herself to just tear open the door, though. Beauty, even musical beauty, should not be interuppted. Not even by Asuka, who would interuppt the world's turning if it interfered with her business.  
So, having found a can of orange juice, she slid along the hallway with her socks on until she reached the sliding door with the words "Shinji's Lovely Suite" on a wooden heart on it.  
_That thing really annoys me._  
Though the stupid corny thing was annoying her, it wasn't making her mad and puffy and arrogant like she usually would. The music was making her passive, for some reason. It was breaking through the feistiness. It was pulling into her inner self, the little girl, the one who vowed she'd never cry again.  
And she wouldn't. She wasn't going to, anyway. It was just an uncomfortable feeling, being small and weak and tiny.  
_Baka Shinji must feel like this all the time,_ she thought. She sipped her orange juice again and squirmed, trying not to feel sorry for the dud. _He's always so freakin' depressed._  
Depressed, but right now, he was happy, for a rare moment.  
Suddenly there was a pause and then the clinking of wood against wood. What was he doing?   
Then she heard it. It was a different song, different from the one he'd been playing repeatedly.   
She knew this song. What was it? It was on the tip of her tongue, she knew it, she knew it, she knew this...  
Then she remembered. It was stupid, really, she didn't even know why she had kept it in her mind all these years. A few months ago–maybe even just a few weeks–she and Shinji had been watching tv, a concert, actually, a duet between a violin and a cello.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
_"Hey, Asuka?"  
"What is it, baka?"  
"Do you like to play violin?"  
"Of course I do. If I didn't, I wouldn't even be playing it now."  
"Oh, alright."  
....  
"Why do you ask?"  
"I was just wondering, that's all.....um, do you have any sheet music?"  
"Uh, well, one, but I wrote it myself, so it's really bad. Besides, why the hell are you asking me all this??!"  
"I...just wanted to know if I could play it, because I don't have any music."  
"Why the heck would I give you some music that I wrote myself?!? It's not even for cello. I wouldn't waste my hard work on you anyway, baka."  
"Fine. Forget I asked. Sorry."  
He slumped down in his chair, that stupid, annoying look on his face. Asuka couldn't take it anymore. She ran to her room and rummaged around in a folder. When she found it, she rushed back into the living room and thrust it in his face.  
"Here you are, dumkopf. You wanted to know if I had any sheet music, so here it is. You can keep it because it's a stupid song."  
Then Asuka left him there, with a surprised look on his face, and in his hand the crumpled piece of manuscript._  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
It was that _stupid_ song, that stupid idiot song she'd written herself. It did sound bad, she was telling the truth.   
On her own violin it sounded bad, anyway, but on cello...it was...pretty good.  
Actually, it was really good.  
She couldn't control herself anymore. She opened the sliding door with a jolt and the music stopped immediately. The player looked up, half embarrassed, half angry-ish.  
"A-Asuka! What are you doing back?!?"  
"What are you doing playing my music?!"  
It was a two-way question that required two answers. They were both trapped, and only one of them had the guts to answer back...  
Or did he?  
"It's not like it's yours anymore."  
_True, true,_ Asuka reasoned. _But I still wrote it._  
"But it sounded so bad the first time I played it on my violin. Why does it sound so good now?!? You can't be any better..."  
"It's because the way you wrote this wasn't intended for violin. I changed it and converted it to cello."  
Stupid her. Of course! What else? The reason why it'd sounded like crap on her own instrument was because it wasn't intended for high notes. Low notes, like the strings on the cello, suited it better. What an idiot she'd been.  
"Well...I....fine. But.." She drew a line in the carpet with her foot. "I was just wondering. Since it sounds so good on your cello, and I haven't been practicing for awhile...could I....try it?"  
Shinji was taken aback. Asuka, asking _without_ harshness, if she could she could try his cello? He was about to say no, why don't you just go write your own music and play it on your own instrument? But he couldn't. Something was holding him back.  
So he gave in.  
"Sure."  
He handed the bow to her and she grabbed the cello and placed it in between her own legs. She fumbled with the bow, obviously uncomfortable with the whole position.  
He tried not to laugh, but a chuckle escaped anyway. "Here, Asuka. Let me show you how."  
"I don't need your help, I can play a violin, I can hold a cello bow just as easily!" She snapped, but after a few more failed attempts from not practicing enough, she gave in. "Okay, you baka cellist, show me how."  
He smiled and took the bottom of the bow in his palm, then he delicately rested the edge of his fingers on hers. She flinched for a moment, but after awhile, she relaxed.  
"So you take the bow like this," He said softly, "and you put your fingers like this."  
"I know that part," She answered back. But not harshly, not snappishly, just...normally. "I can do the rest now."  
_I think._  
"So..." She licked the inside of her cheek. "So you take the bow like this?" She gripped it like he showed her how. "Then play D?"  
He nodded.  
_You take the bow like that..._  
She played it, smooth and exactly the right note.  
"Hey," She smiled. "This isn't so bad."  
_...and you pluck the strings of my heart._  
Shinji could feel his strings being plucked. He was falling in love. With a girl whom he called devil. With a girl who had split personality disorder. With a girl who could play the violin, but had trouble with a cello bow...  
He was falling in love with the girl who could take his own bow in her hands and play it over the troubled strings of his heart.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
End Note: Alright, it wasn't that sappy. In fact, I think it had just the right amount of WAFFiness. I liked the ending. There will be a sequel to this, with Asuka and her violin, called _L Sharp._ Look for it soon! Don't forget to review! I LOVE YOU!!  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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